


Into The Black: A Study in Fairytales (or Three Things That Never Happened to Kaywinnet Lee Frye and One That Just Might Have)

by ipso__facto (ipso_facto)



Category: Firefly
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fairy Tales, Gen, Love, N Things, community: shinyheartsfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-02-14
Updated: 2006-02-14
Packaged: 2017-11-26 04:17:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/646483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ipso_facto/pseuds/ipso__facto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"First time Kaylee got close to Serenity, she thought she’d never seen something so <i>gorram</i> ugly in her whole entire life."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into The Black: A Study in Fairytales (or Three Things That Never Happened to Kaywinnet Lee Frye and One That Just Might Have)

**Author's Note:**

> For ana_grrl

**i.**

  
  
“Magic beans,” her father said, and spit to the side, “magic beans, little Kaylee. And what will that _hun dan_ Captain ask from you in exchange, neh?”   
  
“Oh, Daddy,” she had smiled, and kissed him on the cheek. “Cap’n don’t want nothin’ but a mechanic! Thinks I got a real knack for machines. Just like you always said, ‘member?” He grunted and changed his grip on the wrench, turning back to his work.   
  
“It’s a real job, Daddy! And the crew’ll get paid, sure enough. In real coin! And you and Momma wouldn’t have to feed me no more, neither. You know she can’t hardly keep up with the two of you, these days. It’s hard enough for her as it is ‐ ” A shadow slid across both their faces as he straightened up and twisted round towards her.   
  
“And that is just why you ain’t going, Kaywinnet. Who gonna help me out with these engines when those _jing-chang mei yong-de_ pilots come limpin’ in here, lookin’ for help. Who gonna do the cookin’ when your momma…” He slammed his wrench down on the table. “You ain’t goin’ off into the sky chasin’ some _kwang-zhe de_ fairytale, Kaylee! And that’s final!”   
  
“But, Daddy ‐“   
  
Fess crossed the small garage, taking her face in his hands. “There’s no giants out there, _nian-qing de_. No geese laying golden eggs. This life is what we got, and it’s all we got. It’s what there is, Kaylee. And you and your Momma are all I got. And I can’t do without you.”   
  
The look on his face came near to breaking her heart.   
  


~*~

  
  
Malcolm Reynolds waited two days for his genius mechanic to come back. Even sent Wash out after her, but she weren’t nowhere to be found. They got hold of Bester, already broke and stinking of cow dung, near to passed out in the same bar where he first ran into Kaylee, and they drug him back to the ship. They took off that night and nobody on board never looked back.   
  
Six months later, a deal went bad on Whitefall and they burned too hard on their way out of atmo. Soon after, Serenity quit flying for good.   
  


**ii.**

  
  
Kaylee was no stranger to hard work. Back home, she’d worked harder’n anybody, fixin’ and cleanin’ and keepin’ things goin’ in the house after her mother died. When Cap’n offered her a place on Serenity, well. It was just like jewels and riches fallin’ from the sky, far as Kaylee was concerned. She’d fixed her father an extra big helping of molded protein that night, then run off into the dark with everything she had that she could call her own, not even stoppin’ to say goodbye.   
  
Thing was -- life on Serenity? Weren’t much better’n life back home, come down to it. Cap’n meant well, really he did, but little Kaylee had dreams that didn’t involve havin’ her face streaked with ruttin’ grease every hour of the day. And there weren’t much chance of finding a prince out there in the black. So when she saw that fluffy dress on Persephone, well. Some of those dreams just slipped right out ‘fore she could think twice. And the Cap’n shot ‘em down, fast as they was set free.   
  
Was it any wonder, then, that when that handsome young farmer at the Ball asked her for a dance (imagine her, Kaywinnet Lee Frye being asked to dance at such a fancy place!) she was more than thrilled to take him up on it? And if she let him kiss her behind the buffet table three dances later till her lips were so chapped it hurt to smile, well, no harm done. Only way Cap’n would know was from the leaves caught up in curls of her hair -- and he weren’t likely to notice. Hadn’t taken his eyes off of Inara from the moment they walked through the door.   
  
When the Captain pointed out her bare feet, Kaylee realized too late that she’d left her shoes behind, under the stone bench in the garden where she’d let him shoves his hands up under her new dress, too hard, too fast. But it was easy to plead sore feet and overexcitement for the small loss. At least until the broadwave hit the Cortex a few days later.   
  
“Kaylee. Didn’t those shoes used to belong to you,” asked the Captain, eyebrows raised as the young farmer earnestly offered “a...um…a reward of 10,000 credits, um, m-my whole life savings, that is, for anyone with, uh, any knowledge of the whereabouts of ‐ of a right pretty young girl in a ruffled dress, who might be missing her… who might be missing her shoes.”   
  
“Might be, Cap’n,” said Kaylee, and lowered her eyes, fiddling with the sleeve of her shirt.   
  
“And might you have left anything else behind you think I should know about?” Mal crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back on the console.   
  
“Just one thing, Cap’n,” said Kaylee, and made her wish.   
  
They were wed in June, in the same Ballroom where they met, and Kaylee wore the most beautiful dress she’d ever seen, shinier even than Inara’s finest, purchased just for her with the Captain’s reward. That fall, she caught the _niu-shi_ farmer in the barn with his sister’s husband, and within a day she was back on Serenity, covered in grease. They sold the dress for a real nice price and had fresh strawberries twice a day for a good two weeks ‘fore the take ran out.   
  
Fairy godmothers, you see, even them what wear brown coats, only work for princes and princesses, not mechanics.   
  


**iii.**

  
  
It didn’t take Badger long to suss out which of Serenity’s crew was like to be the tastiest morsel. That second-in-command, Zoe, weren’t no _bao bay_ , no matter how sweet the face, and too hard, besides. She’d be tough to get a grip on, and even tougher to hold on to. And that fancy one, the Companion, much as Bager’d like to see her brought to her gorram perfumed knees like the common whore she was, well. Guild had its own laws and ways of enforcing them that even his lot of mercenaries, no matter how thick in the head, were too smart to take on.   
  
No, it was the one that was always smiling, that pretty little mechanic that he wanted more than anything. And not to pass off to the traders, neither, though he could’ve made a good deal on her, pink and plump as she was. He was humped if he’d turn her over to slavers, though, ‘fore he’d had his time with her. It wasn’t the credits he was after, here. Sometimes the business of pleasure was just business, but sometimes… sometimes, business could be a pleasure in and of itself. And if things were going according to plan, Badger’s pleasure should be on her way right about‐   
  
The bell on the door jangled. Badger checked his coveralls one last time, slipped his hands into the knotted rope hanging from the ceiling, and pressed the button on the recorder hidden in his palm. Then he stepped back into the darkness, letting his limbs hang limp.   
  
“Kay…lee?” The _gos se_ pilot’s weak voice drifted out across the room and the silhouetted figure outside started and slammed forward against the wooden planking. With a nod, Badger signaled his guard who reached out and swung the door open.   
  
“Wash?” His girl stepped through slowly, her face hidden in shadow underneath the hood of a large red cape drawn tight around her neck. He saw the burlap bag hanging from her waist swing out as she stepped forward, heard the clink of coins. She turned her head from side to side, noticing the taller men who flanked the door but quickly dismissing them as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. “Wash? That you?”   
  
“Kaylee!” The man’s voice rang out, stronger this time, as if taking heart from her presence. Badger jerked against the rope. She rushed through the small hallway separating the main room from the door and stopped abruptly when the thickly muscled arm of another of Badger’s men shot out across the archway, blocking her path.   
  
“Wash!” she shouted, and pushed hard against the gent’s bicep, but Badger’s crew were nothing if not stubborn. His man didn’t so much as grunt. Badger moaned in character and thumbed another button on the recorder. His own voice filled the room.   
  
“Not so fast, love. You’re more impatient than that _houzi de pigu_ Captain of yours. Too bad me and Mr. Reynolds have had ourselves a little falling out and can’t work together no more. Too bad he has to send you. Least he knows the rules, even if he don’t never follow ‘em. Have you got my goods, little girl?”   
  
“Yeah, I got ‘em.” She stood up straight and raised her chin, the strings of her bag clenched tight in one pretty little hand. “Wash, you okay? You hurt?” Badger moaned again and twisted against his bonds, smiling to himself and trusting the darkness to hide it. “Simon’s waitin’ out on the mule with Zoe, Wash. He’ll have you fixed up right in no time, good as new!”   
  
Just like they planned, one of the gents behind her crept forward, silent as a corpse, while the one in front of her relaxed his stance and moved to grab the bag of coin. Both men reached at the same time ‐   
  
‐ and the room lit up like a firecracker. Badger was thrown backwards against the wall of the room, and his head connected. Hard.   
  
When the smoke cleared and Badger came to, the girl was gone with the money ‐ and the pilot he’d had trussed up in the closet. Her red cape lay abandoned on his ancient rug. As Badger bent to pick it up, something black and shiny clattered to the floor, and the mechanic’s voice filled the air.   
  
“Sorry, Badger. Cap’n said we ain’t got no cause to deal fair with you no more, seein’ as how you took our pilot without askin’. So I brought a surprise. My Granny taught me to be prepared!”   
  


**iv.**

  
  
First time Kaylee got close to Serenity, she thought she’d never seen something so gorram ugly in her whole entire life. “You mean this piece of _gos se_ still flies?” she asked Bester, letting go of his hand to run hers lightly over the dents and scrapes in the grimy hull.   
  
“Well, yeah,” said Bester, kissing her neck and running his hands up her sides and around to cup her breasts. “Cause they got the best mechanic this side of Earth-That-Was runnin’ her. Brought her back to life myself. Captain Reynolds don’t know nothing ‘bout engines. Some _qing-wa cao de liu-mang_ shoved a Gurstler in ‘er, then left ‘er for dead when the cooling drive blew.” Kaylee shook her head and laughed, traced the contours of the ship with her hands, following the rusted tracks around to the bay doors. Bester trailed after.   
  
“So I salvaged a Compression Block and rewired the whole ruttin’ thing and here we are. Flyin’ high on Serenity. ‘Cept now the grav boot’s shot and we’re stuck here ‘til the Captain can get us a new one.” He paused and watched Kaylee watchin’ the ship, seein’ the glow in her eyes and the smile on her face and the pink of her cheeks, thinkin’ it must be admiration for all the work he done. “But that don’t seem like too bad a thing right this second, does it, now you’re here with me.” With a growl, he spun Kaylee around, pushing her up against the hull. He pinned her there with his body while she kissed him and fumbled for his belt, and he pressed his knee hard between her legs.   
  
“Serenity?” she gasped when he paused for breath, “That her name?” Bester grunted and mouthed the thin cotton of her dress over her breast, hiking her up so that her legs settled around his waist. “I wanna see the engine.” His hand slid under her skirt and he slid his fingers up her thigh, ran them over the edge of her panties.   
  
Kaylee slapped him on the shoulder. “Bester. Take me to the engine room.” He ignored her, splaying his hand against the soft roundness of her belly. She leaned in close to his ear. “Engines make me so hot, Bester. Didn’t I tell ya? Make me wanna just….mmmm.” Kaylee nipped his earlobe and blew lightly into his ear. “Let’s go see the engine, Bester, _dong ma_?” Bester didn’t have to be told twice.   
  


~*~

  
  
It was meetin’ the Captain that did it for Kaylee, really, though she didn’t realize it until much later. The way he talked to her like a real person who knew what she was doin’ with machines even though she was a girl and had breasts, which was more respect than she got from Bester, even. But more than that, it was the way he listened when she told him what needed tweakin’ so’s that he’d know what to do if his ship needed him, way his eyes lit up when the engine started spinnin’ again. Cap’n loved Serenity the way no one else could ‐ loved her like a sister, like a friend, like a home. Only thing Kaylee loved was puttin’ things together right ‐ that little click when they fell into place, like the whole universe was smiling. Oh, she _liked_ plenty of things, sure. Sex and new tools and those little bugs that would hover over the flowers gettin’ blown about so by the summer wind. But she didn’t love nothin’ the way Malcolm Reynolds loved Serenity. And the moment she saw that, she wanted it more than she’d ever wanted anything.   
  
Giving up everything she had and everything she thought she was back planetside to fly off into space with a crew of people she didn’t rightly know on a ship held together by spit and tears, well. That weren’t easy, but Kaylee figured it was worth it for the chance of finding something to really love. Still, it weren’t hard to make Serenity more home-like: a few splashes of paint here and there and some shiny bits and baubles from her treasure chest hung up on the walls for decoration and you almost couldn’t see the imperfections.   
  
And Kaylee fit right in like she’d been born there, out in space with that crew of misfits. 'Course she probably coulda fit in like that just about anyplace with the way she was always smilin’ and findin’ friends, easy as pie, but she reckoned that makin’ a life for herself on Serenity was more excitin’ than being most anywhere else in the ‘verse.   
  
After the first time out in the black, hearing the oxygen pumpin’ into the air system, feelin’ it slide nice and easy into her blood, Kaylee understood how to depend on Serenity for more than just transport. And the third time they flew, run off by Alliance and burning hard, the Captain caught Kaylee mid-chase humming cheerfully to herself with the pulse of the engine running up through her feet. She was so caught up in the joy of feeling it spin for her, under _her_ hands that she never even saw him watchin’ her. It was a hard ride, that one, but Kaylee’s smile never fell, and when the ship broke atmo, she patted the hull and whispered ‘That’s my girl,” and Mal found himself smiling with her.   
  
Kaylee might not know it yet, or maybe she did, but she was in love, too, just as sure as the Captain. He’d have called it a fairytale romance, what they both had with Serenity, but the truth was, it were always goin' to be much more real than that.


End file.
